May the force be with them. Architects from Beijing and Chicago have been chosen by “Star Wars” creator George Lucas to design his planned museum in Chicago on the edge of Lake Michigan.

Beijing-based MAD Architects, run by founder Ma Yansong, will be the principal designer of the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art. Ma, who will design the building, has an edgy portfolio that includes the award-winning Absolute Towers near Toronto, known as the “Marilyn Monroe” buildings because of their curvy silhouettes.

Chicago-based Studio Gang will create the museum’s landscape, as well as a pedestrian bridge that will connect the building to a peninsula that juts into Lake Michigan. Studio Gang founder Jeanne Gang’s work includes the Aqua Tower, a Chicago skyscraper marked by an undulating surface. Recently she was the subject of a lengthy New Yorker profile.

Lucas selected a second Chicago firm, VOA Architects, to implement the big-picture designs of MAD and Studio Gang. Design plans will be released later this year.

“We are bringing together some of the top architects in the world to ensure that our museum experience begins long before a visitor ever enters the building,” Lucas said in a statement accompanying Monday’s announcement. “I am thrilled with the architectural team’s vision for the building and the surrounding green space. I look forward to presenting our design to the Chicago community.”

Based around the filmmaker’s collection of movie memorabilia, the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art will trace the art of storytelling and the evolution of moving images, including those from the “Star Wars” franchise, of course. The museum project, first announced in June, has to overcome some big obstacles to its planned opening in 2018.

Though championed by Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, the plan has riled open-space advocates who oppose the 95,000-square-foot addition to Museum Campus, the lakefront cluster of institutions that includes the Field Museum of Natural History. Also on the defensive are Chicago Bears fans who worry about losing tailgating turf to the new museum, which would be built on some existing parking lots next to Soldier Field.